angels
by monkeeboy
Summary: short story about Cloud, Tifa and Vincent, Cloud tries to be a hero and pays the price


It had been a few days since the fall of Shinra and the death of Sephiroth, Cloud stood at the highest peak of the city of the ancients, atop the shell house with the secret passage, the secret passage that leads down to the alter, the altar where Aeris prayed  
  
The altar where Aries died  
  
Everyone came here in search of peace after their great adventure, but one by one, they left, Yuffie, because she finally convinced everyone to give her their materia, Red, because he missed his home, Cid, because he wanted to go into space again, in the end, the only three remainants where Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent  
  
The only reason they where there...is because none of them had anywhere to go  
  
Cloud and Tifa's Nibelheim had burned, and Vincent didn't belong in the world, he should be dead, but cruel fate had kept him alive to make him bask in the guilt of his sins  
  
Clouds soul is tormented, as he stands on his ledge, he can see the wet corpses below him, Aries lies in that pool of water, that endless blue, he can see her, he can see her hair billowing as if there was a breeze under there.  
  
He can also see Tifa lying next to her  
  
Cloud remembered Tifa's death like it was yesterday, he remembered her standing with him on this perch, then the ground shook violently, an Earthquake.   
  
It came without warning, the ground shook, the walls of rock above them began to crumble, Tifa, in all her beauty, lost her balance and fell in the deep pool, Cloud had dove in after her, Vincent, who had been meditating on a nearby rock, had sensed the distress and dove in as well, Cloud remembered seeing Tifa staring at the water above her, he had known she couldn't swim.   
  
Looking up, he saw the boulders crash into the water, he felt one strike him, making a large cut across his right arm which instantly started to filter blood into the waters, Cloud looked at his wound, then he watched as Tifa's feet hit the bottom, one of the trees which surrounded the pool, became uprooted and fell on top of them, pinning her foot to the floor of the oversized pond.   
  
Cloud watched as she tried to release her foot, he had swum down to her, and breathed what air he had into her mouth, then gone back up to the surface, swimming as quickly as he could, not bothering to discard his gigantic buster sword, his only reminder of a friend that's sacrificed himself, so that he may live on.   
  
Cloud had gone back, and attempted to breathe a second wave of oxygen into Tifa's lungs, until she stopped him, placing one finger on his lips as he tried to prolong her life, he watched her shake her head slowly.   
  
Then Cloud had looked at Vincent, he, too shook his head, stating he could not move the tree alone, Cloud had swam over to try and help, but it was in vain, Tifa had grabbed his shirt and pulled him to her, their lips met passionately, their tongues meshed, their saliva was exchanged, the passion between them heightened, then Tifa pulled away from him, and, in the watery depths, Tifa had uttered soemthing only just audible and understandable  
  
"never let me go" she put her arms around him, he felt, for the first time, her powerful grasp, she had closed her eyes, basking in the love for him she had created internally, she knew this was the end, and she never got to tell him just how much she loved him, only when he was in the clinic with mako poisoning, and he hadn't understood a word anyone said then, she'd been such a coward, she realized her mistakes, she'd spent so much time around him, they grew up together, and they'd saved the world together, all that in the space of ten to fifteen years, all that time, and it would only have taken her a sceond to say what she wanted to say, to say her piece, but no, her mouth was filled with water, she pursed her lips and blew, ejecting it from her head, then spoke again, once again, it wasn't very audible, and hardly undrestandable.  
  
"I love you" Cloud put on a half smile, looked down, then back at Tifa  
  
"I love you too" he replied, they embraced again, Cloud ejectign the water from his mouth, they kissed passionatly again, and Cloud put his arms around Tifa, his hands brushing her shoulders, he could feel the smoothness of her skin, he could almost smell the fragrance of her hair, he wished he could feel her chocolate hair, but no, she released him then smiled, a smile so powerful it could destroy meteor, but couldn't hurt a fly, a smile so warm it could melt even sepiroths heart, but was gentle, and loving, then Cloud watched as Tifa breathed out through her nose, releasing what air se had, then that beautiful glow in her eyes faded, and she died.  
  
Cloud felt like screaming, if he wasn't underwater he may have, he hated himself, he hated the world, he wasn't fast enough to save Aries, and he wasn't strong enough to save Tifa, both his loves where gone, would his friends forgive him? No, he didn't want their forgiveness, he wanted Tifa, he wanted Aries, he wanted to see them smile again, he loked at Tifa, he got his wish, she was still smiling, even in death, for some reason her face muscles froze in place when life had faded from her.  
  
He hadn't struggled, she hadn't flailed, she hadn't panicked, she just smiled until the end, and even after that she was still smiling, just like Aries, always happy, never down in the dumps.  
  
Cloud had heard that when the first angel had fallen from the heavens, it had turned into satan, he never believed angels could fall, now he knew that was a mistake, his angels had fallen, through his own fault, like Vicnent, Cloud did not belong on this earth, condemned to living the life of a clone with the ability to reproduce conveniently engineered out, Cloud remembered, he remembered he had loved and lost, they say its better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, that wasn't Clouds opinion.  
  
Cloud quickly gathered his thoughts, he was pretty much out of air himself, he looked up, the surface seemed so far away, he looked at where vincent had been swimming, only a boulder lay there now, Vincents robotic hand attached to the area underneath by a few loose wires, swaying back and forth, Cloud kicked off from the sand beneath him, slapping at the watre above him to try to get some air, his fingers scraped the surface, then he stopped.   
  
A desperate look on his face, his lungs forced out the air he had and he began to sink, the glow in his eyes, his mark of SOLDIER, faded with his life, his heart stopped, is digestive system stopped working on extracting the goodness from his lunch, his brain sent its last command, then it all just stopped, like a clock that had run out of batteries, Cloud sank, eventually collapsing on the floor of the pool, next to, or to be more precise, between, his two loves.  
  
And so Cloud stands there, atop the peak, a ghost, reliving the earthquake, watching Tifa fall in the water, every day, and every day he tries to save his angel, until one day when he succeeds, when he may ascend, with his angels, to heaven.  
  
from Monkeeboy  
  
Do you realize that everyone  
  
You know  
  
Someday  
  
Will die  
  
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes  
  
Let them know you realize that life goes fast,  
  
Its hard to make the good things last  
  
Do you realize the sun don't go down,  
  
Its just an illusion caused by the world spinning round  
  
Natural  
  
Do you realize? 


End file.
